"Let it be one cheerful rational voice amidst the din of mourners and polemics." Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1840.
A Brit-in-Helsinki's blog about global politics, climbing, cycling, things that annoy me and other bits of life. But not necessarily in that order.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

The Sunday evening (no) climbing post

A no climbing weekend, all the ice and snow has melted but it has been cold and raining so no rock climbing or bouldering options either. I actually went for a run last night in the dark, drizzle and thick mist. I hate running, that's how bored I was. I must have run for about 45 minutes and have aching thighs today which is pretty pathetic. It shows what different muscles it uses from cycling as I have cycled quite a lot this year but the last time I remember going running was in Brussels from my hotel and I think that was last December. I should run more but I really do hate it.

The weather looks like it's going to stay crap as well:What a depressing forecast eh? Finnish weather is dull compared to British weather, particularly when you're from the west of the UK. In Glasgow they say if you don't like the weather just wait five minutes. Here the weather seems to settle in for the week - be that good in the summer or miserable in the late autumn.

But to stay positive for the climbers, here's a pic from last January - Big Toni soloing One Point Gully at Nuuksio, on a day so cold we that you could hardly get brand new ice screws to bite (as ever, you can click on the pic for a bigger version).

And whilst Finland drips and melts in warm southerlies, on the other side of the anti-cyclone Scotland is getting blasted with cold northerlies with lots of snow in the hill. Other UKC people have been out on the Scottish mountains winter climbing and even ski touring, not that I'm jealous or anything. :-(

4 comments:

Jussi6
said...

Toby, it was a spectacular weekend! Went riding on both days. Last tuesday Paloheinä was a crosscountry skiing track, but this weekend it was an orgy of mud, water and slippery trails!

The only downside is that a classic trail christened "Narttu" had been raped with the planks they put over soggy parts of marshes in the north. It's a real shame since this single track had a lot of nice ditch croissings and fast hard pack sections. I spent a lot of time flying over handlebars into mud for my friends amusement there. It's got something to so with the whole "nordic walking" thing. Paloheinä has miles of perfectly good trails but they still have to plank down all the nice muddy spots for those damn nordic walkers. If you can't walk through a trail with sneakers you should buy some wellies and if you can't find your way in the forest without a trail maybe you should just stay away altogether.

I've got studded tyres for my commuting bike which I ride year round; its an old Mongoose MTB with no suspension that I've slowly tricked out with good kit: gears, wheels etc and slicks for getting to work faster. That's actually the bike I do most of my kms on - about 2500 this year. But I haven't got studded tyres for my Kona, last autumn I rode until the snow came then put it away until spring.